Vice President Search Narrows

University administrators say that the search for a new Vice President for Government, Community, and Public Affairs has entered its final stages, and that Columbia University’s Vice President for Public Affairs, Alan Stone, is a leading candidate.

While stressing that University President Lawrence H. Summers is keeping his cards close to his chest and could scrap the search and start over if no suitable candidates were found, administrators said they expected an announcement sometime in the near future.

Over the course of the summer, candidates for the job have been meeting with senior administrators, as well as Summers himself.

Summers has said that there is no firm timetable in place, and those in the vice president’s office said that they have been given no indication of when they will have a new boss.

Applications for the job filled a three-inch binder in July, but there are likely only a handful of candidates still in the running. Acting Vice President Jane Corlette said she did not apply for the job. One source said that another prominent insider, Director of Community Affairs Kevin McCluskey, is also not a candidate.

Stone had no comment on the status of the search when reached at Columbia on Friday.

The Candidate

Administrators and others with knowledge of the Harvard position describe Stone, 57, as a strong candidate with experience in the public affairs of higher education. Stone has held the Columbia equivalent of the Harvard vice president job for the last six years, ever since the head of the public affairs office at Columbia was elevated to a cabinet-level position.

As at Harvard, the Columbia vice president oversees state and federal lobbying efforts, directs local community relations and is in charge of media relations and the school’s public image.

Sources close to the search have said that Summers is looking for a candidate who has experience in all three areas covered by the vice president’s job description—government, community and public affairs.

Stone’s advantage may be that he has handled all three duties concurrently, and would not be subject to much of an adjustment in coming to Harvard.

Stone does have particular strengths—much of his career has been spent in Washington. Before coming to Columbia, Stone was a senior speechwriter in the Clinton White House. He has also worked on policy more directly, as a top aide to Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), and before as a top staffer on three Congressional committees.

Summers consulted widely among Washington acquaintances in considering candidates, but is said to be sensitive to the perception that he is importing too much of Washington to Cambridge. Sources said that while Stone is not friends with Summers directly they likely have mutual friends.

Stone was born in Chicago, and graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1966. He is a lawyer by training, and worked for a time in Worcester, Mass. Stone’s work in Washington focused on issues such as children’s health, nutrition and women’s issues.

The Position

Administration sources, others in the vice president’s office, and a former vice president cited personal chemistry as the key factor in who Summers ultimately picks. Vice presidents serve as the president’s non-academic cabinet, and need to be able to work closely with their boss.

There is no one model for the vice presidency, they said. When James Rowe ’74 was selected in 1994, Corlette said, the federal budget was a particularly pressing issue. With the Gingrich Congress, it was important to bring in someone like Rowe—a Washington native who was an NBC executive in charge of the corporation’s Washington relations.

“I think Neil [Rudenstine] saw me as someone who could hit the ground running on the government side,” Rowe said.

Rowe also brought his vision to bear on the media relations end of the vice presidency, modernizing the news office and the Gazette, Harvard’s news letter.

Rowe was succeeded by Paul S. Grogan, a Bostonian who had spent his career in community development. Grogan had been CEO and President of the Local Initiative Support Corporation, a non-profit organization that provides funding for urban development.

His appointment was seen in the context of Harvard’s entrance into a new phase of physical development. With the large Capital Campaign completed, Rowe pointed out, Harvard was looking to expand.

During Rowe’s tenure it was revealed that Harvard had secretly purchased acres of land across the river in Allston. “Grogan came in with the mandate to blaze the trail in Allston,” Rowe said.

Under Grogan, relations with Boston have been patched—Harvard pledged greater transparency and soothed wounds by contributing to low-income housing programs.

Now, observers said that there is no single problem that promises to dominate the vice president’s agenda.

On the community relations front, Allston development will need continued attention if it is to proceed smoothly.

Federal funding is always an issue. Harvard’s representative and lobbyist in Washington, Kevin Casey, said that while President Bush’s proposed FY 2002 budget includes increases for biomedical research funding, it freezes levels for non-medical research.

Rowe saw communications as a possible stress of the office under the new administration. Summers, he said, has a much higher profile than outgoing President Neil L. Rudenstine—“he’s good copy,” he quipped.

The media is going to be more interested in Summers, at least in the beginning, and Summers is going to be concerned about Harvard’s institutional profile, Rowe said.

Corlette said that she wasn’t sure how much of a focus Summers wanted to put on himself or how much he wants a bully pulpit. But she said that there is work to be done on how Harvard is perceived beyond Cambridge and said that communications is becoming “more and more of a concern.”

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.